Girl made to urinate in cup on school bus, lawsuit alleges

Published: Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 10:45 a.m. CST

By Steve Schmadeke — Chicago Tribune

(MCT) — The parents of a Wilmington middle school student are suing the school district after their daughter allegedly was made to urinate in a cup on the front steps of a moving school bus while on a school outing last January.

The girl asked teachers to stop the bus so she could use a restroom during a field trip to a Chicago Wolves hockey game on Jan. 10, 2012, according to the complaint. Two teachers instead had her urinate into a cup on the bus's front stairwell, the lawsuit says.

Afterward, the bus was stopped, and the girl got off the bus and emptied the cup, the suit says. The girl's classmates, school bus driver and teachers on the bus saw the girl urinate into a cup and then empty it, causing her "severe humiliation, embarrassment" along with "severe and extreme emotional distress," the suit says.

"The conduct that took place on the bus was of an outrageous nature, shocking in nature," said the family's attorney Telly Nakos, who said the family tried to meet with the district to settle the case before filing the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court.

The girl's family is pursing damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress against Wilmington School District 209U, Central Illinois School Bus and the Southern Will County Cooperative for Special Education as well as individual employees of each.

"I really think this is a bus company issue," said school Superintendent Jay Plese. "I don't think the school district has done anything wrong, and the lawyers and the insurance company are handling it."